The Shura-e Nazar (Supervisory Council) was created by Ahmad Shah Massoud in 1984 during the war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. It comprised about 130 commanders from 12 northern, eastern and central regions of Afghanistan.
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In the mid-1980s, in an attempt to prevent rivalry and bring unity to the mujahideen of the northern regions, Ahmad Shah Massoud made a long journey around those regions and subsequently invited representatives from twelve provinces to create an alliance. He succeeded in doing so by creating the Shura-i Nazar (Supervisory Council) which included members of different political parties, ethnic groups and militias from over 130 different commanders. Massoud intended to create a force which could be transformed into a unified Islamic Afghan army to stabilize and rebuild the country after a Soviet withdrawal. Beside being a military alliance, the Shura-i Nazar also was a political alliance which consequently organized political, health and educational structures. Massoud also created an autonomous democratically structured administration, information and organisation system in those regions under his direct command. This was different from how the other commanders used to control their territory. It enabled Massoud to concentrate on the unification of all resistance forces, but his system also allowed the inhabitants of the different regions complete self-determination.
Massoud sought to expand the Shura-e Nazar into the whole of Afghanistan. He convened a High Council of the Commanders of Islamic resistance forces of Afghanistan to decide on future proceedings in Afghanistan in 1990. Roy Gutman of the United States Institute of Peace writes: “Massoud was well on the way to an achievement of greater significance than just a larger military formation. His strategic vision might have led to the creation of a secure state built around a military structure whose major figures had earned their legitimacy in the struggle against the Soviets. Unfortunately, he was the victim of his own success. By the time the commanders agreed to establish the core of a future national army, the last Soviet officer” had already left the country.[1] The process of expanding the Shura-i Nazar into all of Afghanistan failed due to the turmoil that followed in the years after the Soviet withdrawal.
At one point Soviet attacks on Massoud's territories were so destructive that on Massoud's request up to 130.000 people, which was actually the whole civilian population of Panjsher, left their homes within two weeks. They left behind everything they had built up with great efforts during generations. It was not only one of the greatest sacrifices of the Afghan people but also passive resistance against the Red Army and one of the reasons for the latter's defeat. The coordination of northern resistance forces under the umbrella of Shura-i Nazar brought decisively better coordination and more effectiveness to their actions.The Red Army was vanquished in Panjsher alone eight times between 1979 and 1988. The Soviet Union’s defeat was not only a defeat in Afghanistan, but led to the collapse of the Soviet system and was followed by the liberation of the Central Asian and Eastern European countries from Moscow’s control.
The Shura-e Nazar fought for the Islamic State of Afghanistan established after the defeat of the Afghan communist in 1992 through the Peshawar Accords against the Hezb-i Islami of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.[2]
Many commanders of Shura-i Nazar later (from 1996 onwards) fought for the troops of Massoud in the United Front (also known as Northern Alliance) against the Taliban of Muhammad Omar, the Arab 055 Brigade of Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri and regular Pakistani army troops directed by the Pakistani ISI inside Afghanistan.